Water
has always been a life giving source. When scientists are searching for life
on foreign planets, the first sign they look for is water as an indication
that life may exist or may have existed.

Now you may ask, what does this prologue
regarding water have to do with a VGA card review? Well, water gives the
graphics card that we are going to review, a
new lease on life. The GeForce CoolFX 6800 Ultra, incorporates a
water-cooling system.
It seems that water is one of the best solutions to help keep electronic
chipsets at low, operating temperatures. Furthermore, as can be seen
from the specifications
for Gainward's CoolFX 6800 Ultra card, the high clock speeds it operates
at is testimony of the raw power delivered by the card thanks to this fiendish
cooling system. But let's
dig deeper into this
microelectronic's wonder.

2 DVI outputs. The package also includes 2 DVI-CRT adaptors,
so don't worry if you have a plain CRT monitor.

- Package Contents

Included with the card are all the components you need to
get your water-cooling system up and running. 2 instruction booklets (in English
and German), mounting screws, plastic rivets, the 6800 manual, a driver/software
disk (61.21 + Expert tool) and the various s-video cables.

This radiator-fan does most of the essential work, since it is responsible
for cooling the water that flows through the system.

The pump is literally the heart of the system, cirulating the water
to all parts of the circuitry. And best of all ... it is completely
silent!

The tank which is attached to the pump must be filled with 1 part InnovaProtect
and 3 parts distilled water.

The InnovaProtect contains Ethandiol so try to avoid skin contact.

-Installation

When I first opened the box, to assemble the kit seemed like
a daunting task, with the large number of parts, tubes screws
and
other
stuff all sprawled before me. It's
quite
impressive, when you consider that all this tubing and gadgets assemble
into an efficient cooling system enabling the card to work at extreme clock
speeds. Yes, Gainward's CoolFX 6800 Ultra may at first glance, seem a bit
tricky to assemble and install but it
didn't take me more than an hour to get the entire system functional. To be
honest, is was a lot of fun too!

Regarding the installation process and more specifically
the included guide,
I was quite disappointed by the documentation which has very limited
instructions and lacked any real detail.
The only pictures shown had
to do with
the easier portions of the installation. For the rest, I had to use my "imagination".

The
whole principle of the cooling system is to create a closed circuit between
the radiator-fan,
the
pump
and the
heat-sink. But don't worry, you don't have to call the plumber to
assemble it. You simply cut the tubes into the appropriate lengths and
connect each of the
three
parts making up the circuit. In the end, it is as easy as it sounds.

After completing the water circuit, you then have to apply
the water "cocktail". I say cocktail because you have to fill the
tank with 3 parts distilled water (same as that used in car batteries)
and 1 part InnovaProtect Ethandiol liquid. After this, you need to test the
circuit to see if it
is functional. To do this, remove the main power supply cable that connects
to the mother board from the mother board connector, and then apply the included
connector to the
end
of the
cable (at this point the mother board is not connected).
This enables
the
power supply
to
work
without powering up the motherboard. It will be necessary to refill the tank
a feww times with more "cocktail" as the liquid mixture begins to circulate
through the tubing. If everything is ok, then remove the connector and plug
the power
back to your motherboard. That's
it.

When you read this, it may sound confusing, but
if you have all the parts in front of you, it is much easier to conceive the
procedure.

One last thing you must do is to attach the pump and the
fan to the computer case with the screws found in the package. This will
make the whole system silent, and believe me, if you do it correctly, you
will not
experience even the slightest noise.